The Cold Steel Alchemist
by TheDan211
Summary: This story does not include Ed or Al, or any of the other characters you know of. It takes place modernday, with Alchemic Transmutations made possible. Please R&R D:
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER: I do own most of the material here, actually. The plot of the story and the characters will all belong to me, as well as my method of 'proving Alchemy'. What doesn't belong to me is the theories on Alchemy itself and other such Transmutations, or the results of such. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.**

(( A/N: Hey, everyone. D:

This is just an experiment in moderntimes writing. No, I can not write anything physically realistic, go die. Hey, at least this one doesn't take place in the world of a video game, right…?

Read and review. The more love I get, the more of an urge I have to write. ))

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October 18, 2006

_It is said that children are imaginative, that they will believe most anything and they retain their infantile hopes and dreams for several years. To be an astronaut, to be the President, to be a superhero someday. Children are told at an early age that they can do whatever they want. They are lied to from day one._

_It's no wonder they look to media entertainment during their leisure. Immersing oneself into something as simple as a soap opera is usually far more entertaining than living one's life normally (not to mention less dangerous)._

_Matthew Smithwood just getting to that age where the pessimistic realism was beginning to set in. He began to become interested in economics and business, while remaining hopeful in his dreams to become a famous physicist. He was one of the few kids in his class who was interested in such things as Einstein's Theories or Heisenburg's Principles._

_He loved to immerse himself in improbable happenings in theory. Books like Adam Fawer's "Improbable" and stories like Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events" made up his personal library. He read graphic novels, as well, though they did not change his daily schedule more than slightly. A few books of "Naruto" and several copies of "Rurouni Kenshin" donned his shelves._

_His newest infatuation was the anime show, "FullMetal Alchemist"._

_If you've never heard of the story, which I doubt, since fans of the original story rarely read fanfictions based on it, it's not that complicated (in relative to other anime)._

_It circles around the most eventful years of two brothers' lives: Edward and Alphonse Elric. Using a sort of magic known as Alchemy, they attempted to bring their mother back to life through human transmutation(a forbidden act). though it was a failure, such a powerful outcome was attractive to the government, the branch of State Alchemists. The main plot is of the brothers trying to repair the bodily damage caused by the human transmutation the younger brother(Alphonse) lost his body and the older brother(Edward) lost his leg, and then Edward put his arm up to stake to bring back Alphonse's soul and attach it to a suit of armour. It's an excellent and emotional story; You should read it._

_The thing is, the book is labeled as fiction, and even proven in the storyline that it takes place in a different dimension from our own._

_Matthew, though, was unconvinced._

_"If there is a driving deity of this world," he postulated, "It must be unseen and therefore uneffectible by mankind as of present. However, if one could somehow force their way into controlling_–-

I sighed and put my pen down. I know that the basis of the story could be possible, but it was a hard thing to explain. And to do so is to denounce both Newton and Heisenburg, and the scientific community would definitely be turned off by that.

Regardless of their imperfections. Pfeh... Physicists.

I didn't want to throw away what I'd written, so I put it in my folder with the rest of the half-finished pieces.

A glance at my computer screen showed that the YouTube video had finally loaded, meaning I could finally watch the full epilogue of my newest favourite series. Perhaps with the closure of the story I could prove my postulations once and for all?

I was halfway into the opening credits when my phone rang. The digital display read 'Nick'.

"What's up?" I asked casually, repressing my irritation at the video's interruption.

"Hey, Matt. Er, what was the math homework, again?"

"Page three-hundred-somethin, evens, two through... Uh, thirty-something."

"Damn. You finished it in class?"

I sighed. "Don't I always?"

"Could I come up and steal it then?"

I sighed again. "Yeah, copy it if you need to, just do a few of them alone to make sure-"

"Oh, I know this stuff," Nick interrupted me. "We did it last year, remember? Polynomials are nothing. I just don't want the lunch detention for forgetting my homework again."

"You wouldn't have that problem if you didn't jerk around in class every day."

"Go screw a porcupine," he laughed. "We both know who's grade is higher."

I chuckled. "By a point, yes, I know, ess-tee-eff-you. Hurry up and come up, I'm trying to watch a video, kay?"

"Yup, just turn off your 'pron' before anyone walks in."

"Die in a fire!" But he'd already hung up. I snorted, but grabbed my notebook nonetheless. Nick was awesome, he was never serious about anything.

I finished the opening credits, had to pause it again when the doorbell rang, nearly killed myself tripping over the cat on the way down the stairs, shoved my sister out of the way, and handed the notebook to Nick.

"I owe you one," he thanked me. He looked tired, but I didn't ask what was up. His chemistry class was taking a toll on him we knew.

"Make that three, from Friday too," I said, mock-frowning. "Gee-tee-eff-oh my house."

"I'm in your house," Nick sang, "Stealin' your homeworks."

"Just don't forget my notebook, all right?"

"Yup. Seeya in the morning."

"Yup."

I shut the door, explained to Mum what Nick needed, was forced into taking out the trash, and I realized it was already nine-thirty. I still hadn't eaten, either.

I sighed inwardly, putting two cups of water on the stove to boil and brought my laptop downstairs. I plugged in my earphones and made Ramen while finally watching the FullMetal Alchemist movie.

As always, I was in bed by eleven-thirty.

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School sucked.

Austin and Marie broke up, again. Nick kicked Tyler in the nads for un-quitting his smoking habit. The principle wasn't happy, but he agreed with Nick so it was okay in the end. Kasey was being emo again, worried that her boyfriend would break up with her because of something she said or something. Austin came to me just before First Period with a note for Marie. I gave it to her and she got mad at me for 'associating with that scumbag'.

High School drama. Woo-hoo.

The only relevant thing that really happened was during French class. The girl who sat in front of me, a notorious otaku, was wearing a red FullMetal Alchemist shirt. On the back was the Human Transmutation Circle, the most complex in the series. Since she sat directly in front of me, I had a perfect view of it and spent most of the period sketching it and taking notes of the more meticulous bits. It took a full sheet of paper and a half of another.

I listened to my trance music (mostly 'Infected Mushrooms', but a bit of 'DJ Tiesto') on the bus ride home, turning it up only to drown out the bouts of idiocy raging around me. Kids dropping the F-bomb left and right, or bragging about how they smart-assed a teacher or shoved a homosexual kid out of their way.

Half of the kids were older than me, too. That was the sad part. I was only a sophomore, too.

I vaguely wondered at what point it became 'cool' to be a weak-minded prick. I realized it was probably when those who wanted to use others' weaknesses for their own gain gained power. I wondered when that happened and realized it must have been when the system changed so those manipulative people could easily get into power. I wondered when and how that happened and realized I didn't have an answer. Probably around the time people stopped using fists and swords to solve their differences.

Humans suck.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

I stared at the screen of my laptop.

It had four windows open presently: Trillian Instant Messenging, Windows Media Player (Presently playing: 'Astrix' by Infected Mushroom), a minimized Maplestory, and a Firefox with several tabs.

One had a paused video of 'Rurouni Kenshin' on YouTube. One was open to My Account on BasilMarket. One displayed my Yahoo! Mail Inbox. But the last one was occupying the whole screen. An online forum I visited daily:

www.FMAdiscussion.7. …

_Thread Topic: Alchemy, Once Scientifically Plausible (But why not anymore?)_

Whoever wrote this up seemed to know what they were talking about. It was a huge block of text, at least ten thousand words because he had to post thrice in a row thanks to the Character Limit Flood Control.

I'll summarize the posts for the reader : …

_Basically, Alchemy in a near sense to this anime series is possible. I'm a quantum physicist and I'm probably old enough to be most of your parents (but not too old to be an anime fan!). I ran my theories on Alchemy through today's accepted advanced theoretical tests, and it passes as plausible, if incredibly improbable._

_One of the hardest things to find a cause for in this world is the continuous random movement of subatomic particles. With their discovery, of course, several theories came up; the most widely accepted being that of quarks and leptons. A recent realization are that these, the base of all energy and matter, are composed of energy in waves._

_For those of you that missed the relevance of that bit, it means that all matter is just energy in a different form. And therefore anything that lacks matter also lacks energy. When you get to the nitty gritty, it's not all that complicated._

_Now, through people's muscles we can move matter and therefore change and exchange energy. Through thinking, we are fooling around with the chemicals and electricity in our brains (and bodies), so even by accessing mental thought we are exchanging energy. So if one can move internal chemicals and energy by thinking about it, why shouldn't we be able to move things outside our bodies? The difference is, we are born with a full subconscious map of our bodies. We have knowledge on them, just not consciously. If someone can gain that kind of knowledge with something outside of their body…_

_I know a man in my profession that studied an undisclosed group of hermits-as-monks. These monks, through meditation, can go as far as to rise and lower the air temperature of a room. In fact, I once took a martial arts class in which we learned to control our blood flow (through meditation) and use the friction it caused to heat our palms. The energy the heat caused was enough to give us all small burns, and our Sensei (after a few minutes of intense concentration) was able to crack a cinderblock neatly in two._

_Without actually touching it with his skin. See it now?_

_What these people are doing is extending their bodily aura-in-energy to effect their surroundings. I like to think of it as a sort of tendril of psychic-kinetic powers or something like that. If one can control that energy to an immense level, that is, to destroy and then rebuild…_

_Alchemy would be infinitely probable. Or, something like it, anyway. I still don't know where the Transmutation Circles come in._

After reading through his essay twice, I discovered where they did come in.

Good thing it was a Friday. I had a feeling it would be an all-nighter.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

NickEggo10101010101: Neh. . .

NickEggo10101010101: I don't like this one so much. That samurai one was ok, but this show isn't as great

MattDaMan: That's irrelevant, F7

MattDaMan: Anyway, I didn't really like it that much at first either

MattDaMan: tell me when you've watched the first few episodes

NickEggo10101010101: But Margaret's on… F4.

MattDaMan: F3…

NickEggo10101010101: She's getting off later for her piano lessons

MattDaMan: Fine, whatever

MattDaMan: Just watch like 5 episodes or somethin and then call me.

NickEggo101010101010101: Kay.

MattDaMan: I'm gonna go take a nap. This thing kept me up until like 6.

NickEggo101010101010101: F6? You okay?

MattDaMan: Psh. Doesn't matter. Just call me when youre done, kay?

NickEggo101010101010101: Fine.. Seeya.

_MattDaMan has Signed Off._

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

BREEEEP BREEPBREEPBREEP BREEEPBREEEP BREEPBREEPBREEP -

I groaned and picked up my cell, not bothering to check the name.

"Mornin'," I grumbled.

"Matthew?"

I sat up, awake. That wasn't Nick's voice.

"Uh, yeah. Hi."

"Hey… Uh, did I wake you up?" It was a female voice. I couldn't put a name on it, though.

"Yeah," I said, not unkindly. "But don't worry about it. I was sleeping in anyway." This was true, actually. The clock by my bed read 4:48 PM. I seemed to have missed lunch.

"Ah, sorry…"

"Don't worry about it, really," I said again. "Uh… Who is this, anyway?"

She laughed. "It's Lisa, dummy."

"Oh. Hi." Lisa, from French. She was that girl that sat in front of me.

"So, uh… You read FullMetal Alchemist, right? I saw your notebook today when I was getting a tissue."

I flushed. She'd seen me copying the transmutation circle off of her back. "Yeah, I was trying to perfect the Human Transmutation circle… You were wearing it on your shirt, and it was a boring class… Eh-heh…"

"I'm worried about something…" she said, suddenly serious. "You… You don't happen to use the Internet often?"

"Often enough to have heard of 4Chan, but not often enough to have ever visited it," I replied; It was a saying me and Nick had coined and it is actually quite humourous if you get it.

She didn't get it.

"What?"

"Yes, I do. Why?"

"Ever heard of, like, online boards? Foruming?"

I began to assume several things at once.

"I have several forums under my Favourites folder, why?"

"Do you visit a FullMetal Alchemist forum?"

"Two. One's a shipping forum, and the other's one for general discussion."

"Do you use the screenname 'The Matt'?"

"This is about the FMADiscussion-dot-forumer Thread about scientifically proving Alchemy, isn't it…" It wasn't a question, but it wasn't really much of an accusation, either.

"You… Is it all true?"

"To my knowledge, yes."

"Even the essay you posted? Where did you find that?"

"I wrote it," I said, a soft blush creeping up again. I don't like people I know reading my work…

"You wrote all of that?" she was dumbfounded.

"It took me until sunrise, but yeah."

"Do you believe that anyone can become an alchemist, then?"

"No," I replied emotionlessly. "Not just anyone. The person would need to be extra-perspective, and they would need to have pinpoint precision in creating transmutation circles, and they would need to have a photographic memory."

"Or they would need to be an epileptic who prefers foresight to hindsight," she quoted my essay.

"Yes, but I don't know any epileptics, so it'd be hard to test."

"I'm an epileptic."

"What?" I didn't believe her for a second.

"I am… No less, a Temporal Lobe Epileptic."

I couldn't help but laugh. Irony and dark humour really did something for me. TLE patients, by my theory, could easily use the sciences of Alchemy (if they did exist, which they kinda do). However, they could only do that if it wasn't a curable type of epilepsy, which is incredibly rare, and also if their subconscious already has data of how a transmutation works.

Er, welcome to quantum physics, by the way.

"Let me guess," I chuckled. "It's idiopathic, and in your pre-seizure aura you experience visions of Transmutation circles."

"Yeah," she said, almost hysterical. "They were what first made me read the manga. It was like an incredible sense of déjà vu."

I couldn't think of many ways to respond to that.

Finally I said, "You know, the manga and the show are completely different."

"Yeah," Lisa replied. "The characters and basis of the science are the only things that are really the same. I've watched the show, too."

"According to wikipedia, the games were different, too."

"I don't have a PlayStation Two."

"Me either."

We were silent for a few seconds.

"Well," I said, feeling very exhausted. "Congratulations. Be careful with your newfound abilities. Don't kill anybody."

"Wait," she said. "Don't hang up."

I wasn't about to, but I didn't interrupt her.

"You said in the essay that you were really perspective, in relative anyway, and that you possessed awesome precision in drawing through drawing tools because you took a lot of art classes, and that you-"

"It doesn't matter," I said, cutting her off.

"But-"

"If the source of the alchemy does not use it, then nothing is changed. That person is normal."

"You have no wish to use it?"

"I do," I said thoughtfully. "But I've seen what power does to people. I don't want it to happen to me. I don't want to become corrupted."

"Have you even tried it yet?" she asked exasperatedly.

I looked over at my desk table, where a large compass, a ruler, a sharpie marker, and a perfectly-created oragami swan sat on my desk.

"Not once," I lied smoothly. "I need to go. You did wake me up, after all."

I heard her snort irritably. "See you on Monday, then, Matt…"

I hung up quickly, but I could swear I heard a 'You coward,' seceding her sentence.

Before laying back down to rest, I crumpled up the paper swan and threw it into the trash.

(( The amount of replies left to this chapter will reduce the number of days it will take to write up a second chapter. Keep in mind, though, It's nearly Christmas, and I'll be out of state from the twenty-sixth to the third of January. So you can expect more, at the very latest, by early-mid January. Toodles.))


	2. Chapter 2

**DISCLAIMER: I do own most of the material here, actually. The plot of the story and the characters will all belong to me, as well as my method of 'proving Alchemy'. What doesn't belong to me are the theories on Alchemy itself and other such Transmutations, or the results of such. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.**

(( A/N: Hey, everyone. D:

Read and review. The more love I get, the more of an urge I have to write anything. ))

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_Sunday, October 21, 2006_

_Today I have begun writing a book on Alchemy, in theory of physical work. It's confusing me more than any Time-Travel Paradox ever has, mostly because there seems to be a memorizable pattern associated to the Transmut-_

BREEEEP BREEPBREEPBREEP BREEEPBREEEP BREEPBREEPBREEP -

I angrily slammed my pen down onto the desk. Dammit, Nick!

"Yes, what?" I asked, showing obvious resent.

"Hey Matt."

"…"

"…"

"I said, 'Yes, what?' "

"Oh. Chillax, dooder. Anyway, you know how that History project is due Friday?"

"Yes."

"Did you start researching yet?"

"Trust me, dooder, I probably already know more about Greco-Roman art than Mr Salozzi does."

"I figured. S'just, Mom was picking on me for it and I got worried."

"Yeah. Did you watch a few episodes of Eff-Em-Ay yet?"

"That Alchemist anime? Yeah, I got to that one town with that one Psiren chick. It made me loffle."

"I see. So you like it?"

"Yeah, and if it's only sixty-one episodes, I'll probably watch them all eventually."

"Fifty-one."

"Huh?" he grunted.

"Fifty-one episodes, and then the movie takes up where the last episode left off," I explained. "I need you to watch as much of it as you can. But do not look for or read information about it online or elsewhere until you've watched the whole series."

"Uh… Kay, why?"

"Nick, just trust me."

"Fiiiine. I'm gonna go eat lunch, then. Oh, Mom said you could come up for dinner if you wanted, we're having a kinda-party with wings and pizza and stuff."

"For your sister's birthday, right? Mackenzie?"

"Yeah, she's three today."

"I see. I'm busy today, but I might show up for a little bit later."

"Awwwwwww, I see how it is."

"You know how much I hate you."

"I hate you too!" It clicked.

"Uh… Nick?" No answer. "Nick…?"

He hung up on me in a mock fury. I sighed and rolled my eyes.

I turned off the phone after hanging up and continued my essay.

_-Transmutation Circles. For example, certain geometric shapes will deal with different outcomes, while angles and curves within every line seem to deal with the material being used. Learning what does what and where to put it seems to be approximately sixty per cent of the challenge. It's nothing like in the anime television show, where the Alchemist just drew it with chalk, put both hands on it, and in a magical flash of light the object changed._

_No, no, no… In reality, it's a much slower, more meticulous, more focused, perhaps even painful process. The Circle needs to be ABSOLUTELY perfect. Using one that is slightly elliptical does not seem to make much of a difference in the outcome, it is just not as perfect as one that had been caused by a perfect circle would have been. Every line, however, seems to need to touch exactly. While the ink can overlap, it can not pass the place where it is supposed to stop (in drawing the line). I've been using a lot of different mediums, and permanent markers seem to be my best bet. However, this brings up many problems. The thickness of the line used in ratio to the size of the drawing is a fairly important variable in the Circle. If there are two lines that should be parallel as segments, that is, they cross at a slightly separated V-Shape, where at the sharp point of the V there is actually a millimeter or two of space, one needs to be extremely careful with how the ink will spread across the paper. Especially with a marker, this poses a large problem._

_If the circle needs to be six inches of diameter, and the thinnest line I can draw is half a centimeter thick, then lines that should not touch will most likely touch. The obvious solution is to make the circle bigger so that the ratio will fit, but a larger circle will make the outcome larger in volume as well. The mass will stay constant, of course, but if I need to make, for example, an iron weight using a metal chair, the circle would need to be approximately seven-point-six-two inches in diameter. Using something thick like a paintbrush or even a Sharpie Marker would not work. Either the Transmutation would not even begin or there will be a chance that the outcome does not satisfy the means._

_The solution to this is to make a special computer that one can slip a thin or thick lead into, such as the lead used in mechanical pencils (but ranging in sizes from less than point-one millimeters to several centimeters of diameter), and program it to make the circle. However, this would be very time-consuming, and has few uses if it needs to be used quickly. The only relevant purposes this study of science has will be of effect inside a lab._

_However, if one could-_

"Matthew!"

I cringed. "What?!"

"Come feed the cat! And watch your tone."

I did and I did. I also grabbed a glass of ice water before retreating back to my room.

"If one could what?" I asked myself quietly. Dammit all, I'd lost my train of thought…

_If one could…. _I racked my mind._ If one could… Damn! What was it?!_

"Well, the Tee-El-Ee thing, obviously," I muttered, remembering Lisa and her disorder-turned-blessing-slash-curse. "But I'm gonna keep that bit under wraps, so I wasn't about to write that for the public. Was I gonna go with the nanotechnites? That'd be dumb because it had to have been practical and that one really isn't." I continued mumbling until the cat poked her head in the room.

I stared at her.

She cat-stared at me.

I did not remove my unblinking gaze.

Neither did she, but she did utter a low growl. My cat is the only cat I know that growls at anyone, and she does it pretty often, too.

"I just fed you, stupid kitty," I grumbled, and she took it as an invitation. With her obese amount of mass, she waddled the door open and continued waddling until she was at my feet (Yes, she waddles as well). Against my present cold-logic state of mind, I allowed her to sniff at my fingers and then scratched her underneath her chin.

Hush, even if they are fat and stupid and possibly evil; I love cats.

I gave up on the essay for now and left my room. It was late and I was starting to get hungry. If I ate now I wouldn't have to sneak downstairs after everyone else was in bed. I'd always preferred to eat alone, but I also enjoyed the freedom of eating something that was a little louder to prepare than pop-tarts, cereal, or the rare sandwich.

"What's for dinner?" I asked Mum. She was on her own laptop, browsing her Scrap-Booking forums.

"Daddy wanted pizza, but it's still kinda early," she said after a second.

"Kay, how long would that be?"

"Until we order it? I dunno, half an hour?"

"Kay. I'll just make something," I said, and set out to the fridge.

Mum sighed. "You never eat with us," she whined.

"You guys are boring," I said, as I always did. I tossed two chicken-broccoli-and-cheese breaded things into the oven and set it to whatever it said on the box. Except it would take, like, half an hour, so I also pulled one of those yogurt-drink things that I liked from the fridge shelf and downed it.

"We never have anything to eat, Mum," I complained.

"So write down what you want on the list. Or, you know, you _could_ come shopping with us every now and then."

I ignored the last remark and scrawled 'White Castle burgers' on the list (magneted to the refrigerator). After a second of thought I added 'Frozen Pizza' and 'Chunky Monkey ice cream' to it. And then 'Also, whole milk, none of that 2-percent crap'.

As an afterthought, I put my favorite Capital Dee-Colon emoticon under my additions and smiled a little.

"So what'cha doing in there?" Mum asked.

"The same thing I do every night, Pinky; Try to take over the world."

"You can't take over the world without sleep, Matt," she sang, and I'm sure she felt very clever. "I want you in bed by something reasonable, because it's a school night."

"I'll try for eleven-thirty," I bargained, "But no promises."

"So close up by eleven," she replied. "It'll take you a half hour to get ready anyway."

"Whatever," I said, bored already. "A quarter after, then."

"Fine," she sighed, and I dismissed myself to my room.

I shoved the cat out of my chair (she tried to bite my wrists but she's very fat) and turned on the computer.

I started Trillian, browsed all of the forums under my Favourites, caught up over the past few days on the several Webcomics I read (including 'Ctrl-Alt-Del', 'Dominic Deegan', 'Least I Could Do', 'White Ninja', 'MegaTokyo' and 'Penny and Aggie'), checked my Yahoo and Hotmail inboxes, chatted a bit with an online acquaintance, wrote down some names of people that I needed to find from Basil Market-

-Grabbed my dinner from the oven when it rang, started up MapleStory, earned about a million mesos selling some junk I'd put up on Basil, conversed with the Guild for a quick bit, finished my chicken-cheese-broccoli thing (it kinda tasted uncooked in the middle, but I wasn't worried), closed Maplestory, and was about to close Trillian for bed when…

Cutieazn554: Hi Matt

MattDaMan: Uh… Hi?

Cutieazn554: Its Lisa

MattDaMan: Who're you?

MattDaMan: Oh

MattDaMan: Hiya

Cutieazn554: lol

MattDaMan: Whatcha need?

Cutieazn554: I tried alchemy this afternoon… that seal Ed uses to fix the radio?

MattDaMan: …

CutieAzn554: It worked, kinda

Cutieazn554: it was SO scary

Cutieazn554: kinda like Id just put my life up for grabs

MattDaMan: What do you mean Kinda?

Cutieazn554: but then it was over and it worked!!!

Cutieazn554: Oh…

MattDaMan: …

Cutieazn554: I think it was just bcuz it wasnt a radio being fixed, but it was an old winding clock so I figured itd be close enough, but when I finished the hands had melded into the back of it

MattDaMan: Really?

Cutieazn554: it was soooooo weird

Cutieazn554: ya

Cutieazn554: want me to bring it in tomorrow?

MattDaMan: could I see it tomorrow?

MattDaMan: er.. Yeah, that'd be perfect.

Cutieazn554: lol k

Cutieazn554: wait no

MattDaMan: Hm?

Cutieazn554: i hid it in my closet afterwards

Cutiezan554: Ill have to have you up soemtime for it or soemthing

MattDaMan: Eh, that'd probably be fine.

Cutieazn554: ok :D

MattDaMan: How about the day after tomorrow, after school?

Cutieazn554: sure :D

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I woke up at five-thirty, gasping in a cold sweat. Transmutation circles dotted my vision like after-burns of halogen lights. I blinked them away and nearly rolled out of bed. Why was this haunting me? It's some simple alchemy. At least, it was simple enough for me to complete successfully.

I was up until one in the morning preparing for this. For this experiment. Only with this data could I finish my essay. It was absolutely essential.

Last night's experiment stared at me. Staring… Staring unblinking. Didn't it keep its eyes closed last night, after it was complete?

It frightened me. I tried to say something to it, calmly and quietly.

"Go away," I whispered, and I felt my blood turn cold. Why did this thing have such a power over me?

Its eyes bore into my very soul.

"I created you." I said quietly. "Let me sleep."

It blinked. The upper eyelids moved down to meet the lower ones.

I was suddenly furious. In a punch, it stopped staring. No more eyes. No more blinking. No more stares. It was over. I'd be okay.

I wrapped it into my hoodie from Track Season and silently slipped into the darkness outside.

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"Matt, the cat got out," Mum said to me. I was about to leave for school. "I haven't seen her since around dinner last night."

"She's so fat, she can't have gotten far," I said, making sure I was occupied with tying my shoes. "Set out some tuna or something."

"Yeah, yeah."

Before I could betray myself, I set out the door to the bus stop. I was a little late as it was, so my haste shouldn't have been all that conspicuous.

Once I was on the sidewalk, I allowed myself to look over to the forest behind our house. It was an extensive bit of land. Nobody would be able to find the corpse of the thing in there. In fact, I'd gotten lost on my way back home from it last night; I ended up in the next neighborhood over and took the roads back home.

I turned up my MP3 player to drown out my peers' voices as well as my guilty thoughts.

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Lisa was already copying down the morning warm-up from the whiteboard when I walked in. She seemed to reflect the opposite of the way I was feeling: She looked as though she'd slept twelve hours and had a can of Monster on the way to school (which was very possible).

"How'd you manage that?" I asked Lisa, brushing my fingers over a new wooden bracelet of her's. I didn't need to go into detail with the inquiry.

"Look at the designs," she said with a proud smile, running her fingertip over the red, white, and blue lines. They crisscrossed around like spiderwebs, but they seemed to break and twist around like a paint splatter. It was quite an artistic feat.

"Yes, it's very pretty," I said, raising an eyebrow. She laughed.

"Look," she explained. "See how it's mostly white? And then there's a lot of the blue lines, and very little red ones?"

"Yes."

"…You still don't get it?"

"No."

"Could I borrow a sheet of writing paper?"

I was taken aback for a second, and then I reached into my backpack to rip one from an unused notebook when it hit me. I froze.

"Get it yet?" she grinned.

I dropped my voice. "You transmutated writing paper into wood?" I asked, a little amusement seeping into my voice.

"Yeah, but it took like six sheets and a bunch of wasted ones," she replied, her whispers cracking in proud laughter.

"Have you told your parents about any of this?"

She looked at me like I had two heads. "Of course not."

I nodded. "And any friends?"

She shook her head. I sighed and took my seat.

"You shouldn't tell anyone," I said. "It'd be-"

"Stupid," she replied, rolling her eyes. "Magic stuff like this isn't supposed to exist. I've seen enough action movies to know that the girl with the superpowers needs to stay quiet about them." I allowed myself a laugh, but she cut me off. "What about you? Who've you told?"

"Nobody at all knows about this except the people that read my original essay on the Eff-Em-Ay forums," I replied seriously. "And after collecting some more data I decided not to release any more information to anyone. Not online, especially."

"Why not?"

"It's dangerous," I said simply. "I can't stop you, but you really shouldn't fool around with this stuff. I'm really surprised that a transmutation circle from the media version of this science actually succeeded for you, there are so many factors in it that the improbability of such an event is preposterously-"

"Holy shit," she interrupted. "Have you been reading old SATs or something? Slow down, man."

I stared. "Huh?"

"Your eloquence is astounding me," she said airily, with a wave of her hand and a smirk of her face. "Try that again."

I rose an eyebrow, sighed, set down my backpack and sat at my desk. She turned to face me over my desk.

"I was saying that you shouldn't pull the transmutation circles directly from the anime or manga," I tried. "They aren't real, and for all you know they could cause a quantum irre--... A big explosion," I finished sagely, motioning an explosion with my arms for an added effect. "You got lucky. Really lucky, not that it worked but that you didn't kill something or someone accidentally. We're working with the unknown here."

She nodded. "I know what I'm doing," she said strangely, as if she didn't expect to say it (though she knew she believed it to be true). "The angles, the shapes... It's like another language, almost. There's no past and future tense and nothing makes any sense, and there are no words but it's still translating ideas... Like, there are differences as vague as nouns and pronouns and as obvious as letters and sentences, you just gotta view the circle as a single idea, and then the angles as, like, almost kinda drawing it? And then the other stuff, that's almost like it's... Oh, I don't know; That was a stupid comparison."

"I would silently agree but you would feel insulted if I wasn't blunt about it," I said, and she giggled. The class was starting to fill, so she turned around and I copied the morning warm-ups from the whiteboard.

Today Lisa was wearing a Gaara tee-shirt. I wondered if she had a crush on the angsty fictional character (akin to every other Naruto fangirl out there).

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_Imperfect verbs in French really need more logic around them_, I decided. I was on the verge of falling asleep, though, so I figured I would try to have someone explain it to me more tomorrow.

A tingle went down my spine. Something like a capgun noise had been made, and my eyes fluctuated back to normal from within my eyelids.

"Huh?" I mumbled, sometime around the same time as half of the rest of the class. I looked around, and noticed a few others doing the same. Maybe it wasn't just my sleep?

"Did a light fixture just pop?" Lisa asked out loud. After about thirty seconds of a public class discussion the teacher had us back under control, claiming that whatever it was it was less important than her lesson.

Lisa passed a note. I unfolded it behind the desk, on my lap. A small object fell onto it, a white wooden dragon, with blue and red lines swerving around it.

The note read "see? no problem ;P"

I kept the wooden sculpture on my lap, and angrily scrawled "what the FUCK Lisa" on the slip of paper, and then set it on her shoulder. She pulled it down after swatting at my hand (thinking it was a fly).

She read it and giggled. I pinched her shoulder hard and snarled as quietly as I could while still making it known that I was snarling at her.

"Quit flirting!" Bobby, the class clown who sat behind me to my left, said rather loudly. "I'm trying to _learn _here!"

This was obviously a lie and I laughed awkwardly with Lisa and the rest. Madame settled us down again and the class ended without more difficulties, I think (I had fallen asleep within ten minutes).

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"I can do anything if I have the time," Lisa reassured me, walking away from the classroom. "Promise."

"Not in the middle of class, you shouldn't," I mumbled and growled at once, still both tired and angry. "People are gonna start asking questions, and then what?"

"Oh, duh," she said, eyes wide, being sarcastic. "Why, I'll tell them it was magic and send them to you! Not like I can come up with any excuses or anything."

"For the noise, light, and sudden movement of energy?" I quipped.

"... Touche."

"Honestly! Just do it at your house, if you must. And keep them small."

"You're forgetting who was born with this ability," she said, laughing and twirling ahead of me (others sidestepped her cautiously).

"_You're_ forgetting that you don't know any of the science behind this," I reminded her. "I put the most simple basics of the theory in that stupid essay, and a lot of it has already proven to be untrue."

"I know," she replied, smiling.

"This isn't a toy," I chastised.

"Thanks, mom."

"You're welcome, now get to class, you'll be late."

She laughed and waved, and returned it with a halfhearted two-fingered wave and turned the other direction irritably. Her immature attitude towards this was going to complicate things. I wondered if maybe I should just remove her, an obstacle. I wondered how difficult it would be to get away with murder and realized that it would be far too risky for now. I pushed the thought into the back of my mind, wondering when I had become so cold in deciding things.

I remembered the family cat and walked faster, dropping my bags and falling asleep before the period (Biology) had even begun. The wooden dragon in my pocket felt like a thorn digging into my side.

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I got home, turned off my MP3 player and tossed it with my Cell phone (set to silent for now) onto my bedstand. I changed out of my polo shirt and into a large tee (from back when dressing like a Gangsta was the only way to do it. I actually went down two shirt sizes between eighth grade and ninth). I carefully carried my boken (the wooden sword one would have seen Kaoru-dono using in 'Rurouni Kenshin') into my backyard, watching my breathing on the way.

It had been two years since I had taken a lesson in any martial arts, but by now the procedure was carved into my mind. Meditation always came first. As I trained, my other problems would slip away. In time I would forget that I wasn't wearing shoes in this ant-infested state, I would forget about the old neighbors two houses over that kept glancing at me, I would forget about the can of tuna that had been left out in vain by the back door.

I drew the mock katana horizontally, hissing through my teeth as my body strained. The tip of that stick could have sliced through a person's skin in that specific swing, and it was kept very un-sharpened. I was past the stage of merely breaking bones in both of the arts that I practiced.

I returned the boken to its nonexistent scabbard and drew it a dozen more times, each time visualizing every angle and curve of my body and the weapon and the weapon's path. It wasn't something I needed to think about anymore. I wondered if that was how it felt to be Lisa with Alchemy. Did she see the work as it was supposed to be and then copied it from her mind? Did she go with what felt right?

It sort of reminded me of myself in middle school... Awkward with painting but talented in sketching. At the time I could only really do people: Portraits and some anime-styled stuff. Oh, and weaponry. Even at a young age I had loved drawing swords. Of course, those wouldn't do for this class course. I learned how to do nature that year, still life and perspectives and colour schemes in painting, coloured pencils et cetera... We did charcoal and water colouring, even some clay modeling and some foil-on-string-on-cardboard old-fashioned print sets.

But by now, my body was my favourite medium.

My muscles were awake by now, and I had moved into vertical swings. Swing, step forward. Swing, step backward. Pause. Swing, forward. Swing, backward. Pause. If you wanna allude this to Kenshin again, it shouldn't be a new idea.

Over time I began to feel the boken's weight. I wondered what time it was that the old couple down the street had decided to go inside. I stopped swinging, as my concentration had broken, and mock-sheathed and dropped the boken. I dropped into a general fighting stance and punched the air twice, jumped left and roundhouse-kicked with my right foot, pretended to have a reverse momentum there and quickly span three-hundred sixty degrees (to my right, of course) to axe kick the back of my nonexistent opponent's head.

If that fighting-slash-training scene made any sense to you, good.

I did other such scenarios, take-downs without grappling, instead with my fists, knuckles, palms, thumbknuckles, opposite-thumbs, outer wrists, wrists, elbows, shoulders, the crown of my head, my knees, my heels, the hard bone under my toeknuckles, the flat of the top of my foot, the flat (actually angled) of the lower side of my foot, and the outer or inner sides of my heels.

It was easier to strike the air then to break the air's nonexistent joints through grappling, which was otherwise my preferred method. And no, if you're going to ask, we never actually broke each other's bodies when training in the martial arts schools. Control had always been taught since White Belt, tested in class when Sensei would step directly in your way during a kata, expecting you to punch at full speed and then stop moving less than an inch from his benevolently grinning face. He was a cool guy, and I did rather miss the school, but right now my formal high school education took charge over that.

I hadn't forgotten any of the material, though. I still practiced my katas whenever I was moved to do so, and often grappled with my friends (generally ending up with me holding their own wrist behind their backs). My assortment of weapons (which we had learned to use every Friday and Saturday) had not lessened in value. It wasn't a huge collection, it merely included the boken, a six-foot bo staff, my old four-foot staff, a shinai (which was similar to a boken but lighter), my escrima sticks (as if one had cut a bo staff in half, leaving two short ones), a pair of kamas (like dual mini-scythes), a lightly-padded nunchuka (by far the most dangerous thing in my room), and my steel (but unsharpened) practice katana. It was rather heavy (I dunno... Ten pounds-ish?) for my normal training sessions, and I couldn't really just drop it when I got bored as I could with my ten-dollar boken.

It is a mystery to my parents that I am so skinny, but it makes perfectly logical sense to me. I don't work out except for these little sessions of airfighting, and these are all fairly easy on the body (as long as one is flexible). Their purpose is to keep my mind and wit sharpened. Perhaps it is my mind that keeps me from gaining weight. the brain is a muscle after all, and it does burn calories.

I breathed a final, sighlike breath, and stood up normally. I picked up my boken from the floor and returned inside, my everyday bit-of-a-slouching composure returning with every step.

I needed to get that out of my system terribly since I read that first essay on Alchemy.

I returned to my workstation and closed the door without much interference of the family, and that was all the better for me. According to my cell phone, Nick had called me twice. I figured I would talk to him online tonight instead of calling him back, and started up my computer. I wanted to talk to one of my online acquaintances, who seemed very into my discovery of Alchemy. apparently it must have been something he studied before, and he understood my unspoken philosophy about the power. I wanted to tell him that it was actually all lies, that I had said it as a prank. I knew he would not believe that but he would understand that I would not be talking to him again. It would be touchy to just go all out and cut all ties without the subtle intellectual-to-intellectual way of saying Goodbye.

I read over my notebook that I had dedicated to Alchemy in general, mercilessly crossing out old theories with a red pen. So much stuff at the beginning of the book was so silly, so egocentric, so easily disproven. I was ashamed to have thought like that.

I capped the pen when the computer started and sat down in front of Trillian.

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"He's pulling out," Howards said calmly into the phone. "He's already made up his mind, only his own bit of pseudo-honor has kept him from blocking me."

"I see. Matthew Smithwood is his given name, correct?"

Howards pulled up the boy's file. "Matthew Smithwood, resident of Florida, United States. He responded to the essay that Gatlerr posted on a public discussion forum of the Alchemy Anime and Manga, and he seems to know how to use a Transmutation Circle."

"He could easily be bluffing with that. That fool the other day claimed to have been making gold and diamonds in his room with Alchemy, and we both know he didn't know the first thing about any sort of Physics equations."

"I've talked to Smithwood on more than one occasion," Howards said cheerily, "And the kid knows what he's talking about. He'll quote his books for me if I ask him to, and he stops typing while he reads up on subjects if I point out something that he is unsure about. This kid's the real deal."

"Is he pulling out because he suspects us? Send me the final log."

The subordinate did so quickly, all the while talking. "In my studies of psychology, I believe he is afraid of us, but he does not think that we are anything more than the single being 'Howard' that he has known through the net. Read it for yourself."

Silence for a bit.

"So smug, he is," said the man in charge. "He says he is bluffing, but he does not want to be believed. The child is letting you know that he is not lying, though he can no longer speak to you, and so this-"

"Sir, I know," Howards said, now urgently. "He's signing off. Do we ha--"

"Let him go," he responded with a chuckle. "We've already tracked him. How many Matthew Smithwoods can there be in Tampa, anyway?"

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"Have you noticed?"

Geoffrey McHande sighed and folded his page before closing the tome. "I was really hoping you wouldn't, actually, dearest."

His fiancee smirked. "I'm not as good as you, maybe, but that's a high standard to live up to. It's been keeping me up the last few days, to be honest, so don't take your time."

McHande blinked twice. "The aura's been keeping you up, dear?"

She gave him a similar look. "Yeah, it's been tingly for a while. How would you describe it?"

"Er... More like a pulsating heat."

"Yeah," she said strangely. "It was like that at first for me, but when I focused on it, it felt a lot more powerful."

The pair shivered as a cold aura hit the room. The man kissed his girlfriend on the cheek and grabbed only his shoes, cane, and coat before stepping out.

"I'll have my cell," he shouted to her, waving while jogging down the stairs.

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MattDaMan: Hoyyyyyyyy

NickEggo10101010101: MAAAAAAAAAAATT THYOOOOOOO D:

NickEggo10101010101: WHERE HAVE YOU BEEEEEEEEEEN D:

MattDaMan: I'm sorry, dude, it's been a rough weekend and Monday ..

NickEggo10101010101: No excuses gtfo

MattDaMan: I'm pretty much done with the entire History project actually

NickEggo10101010101: wut

NickEggo10101010101: aw man :D

MattDaMan: But I was catching up on sleep during that party

NickEggo10101010101: I love you Matt :D

MattDaMan: I wasn't expected there or anything, right? I mean I feel bad about it but I fell asleep after finishing something for Science so I wasn't even thinking about anything...

NickEggo10101010101: It's not a big deal dooder

NickEggo10101010101: My cousin came up, we just played halo for most of it

MattDaMan: Ew.

NickEggo10101010101: D: it wasn't that bad

MattDaMan: I hate Halo D:

MattDaMan: So what about FMA, then...?

NickEggo10101010101: I pretty much finished it up

NickEggo10101010101: I'm on episode 43, I'll finish it sometime on Sunday prolly

MattDaMan: It doesn't matter

MattDaMan:

MattDaMan: Look, uh...

At this point I froze over the keyboard. This wasn't something to gossip about, and after the mistake of talking to Lisa and letting her know that all of this was possible very well might have killed her. And me... To bring Nick into this would only show how bad of a friend I am. There is no reason to put my best friend into danger with this knowledge.

NickEggo10101010101: What

MattDaMan: I think I have a crush

NickEggo10101010101: Wait

NickEggo10101010101: Hold on, what Science project?

MattDaMan: Er, it was past due. Anyway, about this girl...

NickEggo10101010101: OH.

NickEggo10101010101: WAIT STOP.

MattDaMan: ...Wha?

NickEggo10101010101: DOOD LOLOLOL

NickEggo10101010101: LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL OMF

NickEggo10101010101: OH. EMM. EFF.

MattDaMan: Wha? D:

NickEggo10101010101: Matt

NickEggo10101010101: There's no girl

_Shit..._

NickEggo10101010101: Dood you messed up

NickEggo10101010101: you have like a 99 in science

MattDaMan: ...

NickEggo10101010101: Dood I can tell when you're thinking too much. Something's up

NickEggo10101010101: Why do you keep bringing up FMA and why are you so quiet recently and what have you been doing and why don't you want to tell me?

NickEggo10101010101: ;DDDD

MattDaMan: Ryeh

MattDaMan: You suck, Nick

NickEggo10101010101: Is it like dangerous or something

NickEggo10101010101: Because that would srsly make me explode in awesomeness rays right now

MattDaMan: It's like Kira from Death Note dangerous.

MattDaMan: Or like, Joshua with a Shamshir dangerous.

NickEggo10101010101: So Alchemy is real right

NickEggo10101010101: Remember how you were telling me about how that one time your sensei was breaking wood with his mind?

MattDaMan: Rofl, it was friction, but yeah, you're on the right track. D:

NickEggo10101010101: So it's real amirite

MattDaMan: u r rite D:

NickEggo10101010101: Sexxxxxxyyyyyy.

NickEggo10101010101: But it's like complicaated quantum physics crap right

MattDaMan: Pretty much, yeah, I only understand most of it still. Want me to send you some reading?

NickEggo10101010101: Will it keep me up all night?

MattDaMan: Probably. D:

NickEggo10101010101: Fck yea, gimme.

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